SPECIALDonald MillerDonald Miller, author of the best-selling memoir "Blue Like Jazz," had a startling revelation when movie producers approached him to make a movie about his life.

They said they would have to change some things to make his life interesting and improve the story.

It got him thinking.

"A story is about a character who wants something and overcomes obstacles," Miller said in a telephone interview from Houston, where he grew up as a Southern Baptist before moving to Portland at age 21. "I was just writing books, which can be boring."

He realized he had been living a boring life, and set about figuring out how to make his life a better story, like in the movies.

"If you lived your life over, what would you do differently?" he said. "We had to edit the story to make it more compelling."

As he thought about life as a story, he began to change it to be more meaningful.

"What is a meaningful life?" Miller said. "I started a mentoring program, and rode my bike across America. It was extremely hard, but it was awesome. The landscape in America is stunning. The people are more open and kind than you would think to watch the news at night."

He wrote another memoir, "A Million Miles in a Thousand Years: What I Learned While Editing My Life."

"This book is about creating a movie out of your life, and having to change it," Miller said.

As Miller shared this philosophy with others, it prompted others to change too.

One of his friends, Jason, had a 13-year-old daughter who had gone off track, experimenting with drugs, dating a suspicious character and rebelling against her parents.

Miller suggested their daughter was caught up in a bad story and their family needed a better story to live. A few months later, he ran into Jason again.

Jason said he had a sleepless night after the talk about his family's story and the role their daughter was playing in it. Jason said he realized he needed to provide a better role for his daughter, a better story for his family. So he called a family meeting and announced that they were going to build an orphanage. Jason's wife and daughter reacted angrily and thought he had lost his mind.

But the next day, his wife put her arms around him, said she was proud of him and agreed to take on the project. Their daughter came up with the idea of talking about the orphanage on her Web site to raise money. She wanted to go to Mexico, take pictures of children who needed the orphanage and put the pictures on the site.

The daughter also broke up with her boyfriend, complaining that he had told her she was too fat.

"No girl who plays the role of a hero dates a guy who uses her," Jason told Miller. "She knows who she is. She just forgot for a little while."

Miller, author of several other books including "Searching for God Knows What," "Through Painted Deserts" and "To Own a Dragon," has continued to find meaningful roles in life that he adds to his writing career.

Miller delivered the opening-night closing prayer at the 2008 Democratic National Convention and serves on President Barack Obama's Task Force on Fatherhood and Healthy Families.

He's on a lecture tour that comes to Trinity United Methodist Church in Homewood on Thursday at 7 p.m. It also features actress and comedian Susan Isaacs, author of "Angry Conversations with God: A Snarky but Authentic Spiritual Memoir." She has appeared on TV shows such as "Seinfield," "The Drew Carey Show" and "My Name Is Earl" and was in the movie "Planes, Trains and Automobiles."

Miller said he has never been ordained to the ministry or worked on the staff of a church, but churches have embraced the spirituality in his memoirs.

"In the Christian subculture, there's not a lot of honesty. There's fear of expressing the reality of their lives, admitting to flaws," Miller said.

His books tend to dwell on the flaws and shortcomings, he said. "People say it's refreshing," he said. "At least, that's what they tell me: 'We don't often get that.'"

His most successful book, "Blue Like Jazz," was a memoir about growing up in the South in a Baptist church, moving to Portland and auditing classes at Reed College, "the most godless campus in the country," Miller said. "It was a clash."

Miller has held onto his Christian faith. "It's a part of my DNA," he said.

"My faith is very different than it was when I left Houston," Miller said. "I'm still evolving. My faith is less black-and-white, less simple, more mysterious." Now, it feels more like a story, he said. "I learned the elements of a meaningful life," Miller said. "The big one is that conflict is good. Conflict makes the story better and we shouldn't avoid conflict. We have to face it. Without conflict, the story cannot move forward."